INTRODUCTION: Many patients with bipolar disorder (BD) spend around 10 years without a diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The difficulty in distinguishing bipolar from unipolar depression, the prevalence of depressive symptoms along the course of BD and patients' bias in recalling their hypomanic symptoms are some of the factors that contribute to this problem. OBJECTIVE: This study compares the efficiency of several screening instruments for BD detection in a group of patients (n=63) with mood disorders, or cluster B personality disorders...

Background and Objectives: Tuberculosis (TB) is still responsible for a wide range of deaths worldwide. Beijing genotype is one of the most important and virulent strains in Mycobacterium tuberculosis . This study was designed for determination Beijing genotypes of M. tuberculosis in Golestan province, north of Iran. Materials and Methods: In the current descriptive study, 238 clinical MTB isolates, obtained from patients with pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB in north of Iran, were evaluated...

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that the broad major depressive disorder (MDD) construct is heterogenous. Koukopoulos has provided diagnostic criteria for an important subtype within that construct, "mixed depression" (MxD), which encompasses clinical pictures characterized by marked psychomotor or inner excitation and rage/anger, along with severe depression. This study provides psychometric validation for the first rating scale specifically designed to assess MxD symptoms cross-sectionally, the Koukopoulos Mixed Depression Rating Scale (KMDRS)...

Objective: Obesity is a medical condition that may have a harmful effect on health, leading to increased illness and reduced life expectancy. This studyaimed to evaluate the relationship of psychiatry disorders in overweight and obese children and adolescents. Materials & Methods: In this case-control study, 160 children and adolescent were enrolled refereed to Clinic of Pediatric Endocrinology, Imam Reza hospital, Mashhad, Iran in 2009-2011. The sampling method of this study was non-probability and biased...

We show how to realize two-component fractional quantum Hall phases in monolayer graphene by optically driving the system. A laser is tuned into resonance between two Landau levels, giving rise to an effective tunneling between these two synthetic layers. Remarkably, because of this coupling, the interlayer interaction at nonzero relative angular momentum can become dominant, resembling a hollow-core pseudopotential. In the weak tunneling regime, this interaction favors the formation of singlet states, as we explicitly show by numerical diagonalization, at fillings ν=1/2 and ν=2/3...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop, validate, and assess the reliability of the Persian version of Vocal Cord Dysfunction Questionnaire (VCDQP). STUDY DESIGN: The study design was cross-sectional or cultural survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty-four patients with vocal fold dysfunction (VFD) and 40 healthy volunteers were recruited for the study. To assess the content validity, the prefinal questions were given to 15 experts to comment on its essential...

BACKGROUND: Early detection of maladaptive processes underlying pregnancy-related pathologies is desirable, as it will enable targeted interventions ahead of clinical manifestations. The quantitative analysis of plasma proteins features prominently among molecular approaches used to detect deviations from normal pregnancy. However, derivation of proteomic signatures sufficiently predictive of pregnancy-related outcomes has been challenging. An important obstacle hindering such efforts were limitations in assay technology, which prevented the broad examination of the plasma proteome...

Highly resistant pathogens may be developed in patients with immune disorders after prolonged exposure to antibiotics, a growing threat worldwide. In order to overcome these problems, this study introduces a new class of engineered nanosystems comprising of tea tree oil nanoemulsion (TTO NE) loaded with Ag nanoparticles (NPs). Silver shows a strong toxicity towards a wide range of microorganisms. Also, TTO NE could be employed as a promising and safe antimicrobial agent for local therapies of bacterial infections...

There is increasing evidence that maternal diabetes mellitus during the pregnancy is associated with a higher risk of neurodevelopmental and neurofunctional anomalies including motor dysfunctions, learning deficits, and behavioral problems in offspring. The cerebellum is a part of the brain that has long been recognized as a center of movement balance and motor coordination. Moreover, recent studies in humans and animals have also implicated the cerebellum in cognitive processing, sensory discrimination, attention, and learning and memory...

Taraxasterol is one of the important constituents of Taraxacum officinale L. (Compositae) with antioxidant potential. The present study was designed to evaluate and compare the antiurolithiatic effects of taraxasterol and potassium citrate in the ethylene glycol induced urolithiatic rat. Urolithiasis was induced by ammonium chloride and ethylene glycol in adult male rats. Taraxasterol (2, 4 and 8 mg/kg) and potassium citrate (2.5 g/kg) were treated for 33 days by gavage. Then, the animals were anesthetized and weighted and blood, urine, liver and kidney sampling were done...

To be effective, therapeutic cancer vaccines should stimulate both an effective cell-mediated and a robust cytotoxic CD8+ T-cell response against human papillomavirus (HPV)-infected cells to treat the pre-existing tumors and prevent potential future tumors. In this study, the therapeutic experiments were designed in order to evaluate antitumor effect against the syngeneic TC-1 tumor model. The anti-tumor efficacy of a HPV-16 E7 DNA vaccine adjuvanted with melatonin (MLT) was evaluated in a C57BL/6 mouse tumor model by measuring tumor growth post vaccination and the survival rate of tumor-bearing mice, analyzing the specific lymphocyte proliferation responses in control and vaccinated mice by MTT assay...

In this study, graphene grown on stainless steel mesh efficiently incorporates the advanced properties of graphene in the form of an ultra-thin coating with the open geometry of the substrate, resulting in a highly sensitive and fast sorptive device capable of extracting target analytes directly from sample matrices. The synthesis of graphene on the stainless steel mesh was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The advantages of the new microextraction device have been investigated for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in environmental water samples in combination with gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID)...

The Mars Science Laboratory Mast camera and Descent Imager investigations were designed, built, and operated by Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, CA. They share common electronics and focal plane designs but have different optics. There are two Mastcams of dissimilar focal length. The Mastcam-34 has an f/8, 34 mm focal length lens, and the M-100 an f/10, 100 mm focal length lens. The M-34 field of view is about 20° × 15° with an instantaneous field of view (IFOV) of 218 μrad; the M-100 field of view (FOV) is 6...

INTRODUCTION: Although classical randomized clinical trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for proof of drug efficacy, randomized discontinuation trials (RDTs), sometimes called "enriched" trials, are used increasingly, especially in psychiatric maintenance studies. METHODS: A narrative review of two decades of experience with RDTs. RESULTS: RDTs in psychiatric maintenance trials tend to use a dependent variable as a predictor: treatment response...

Psychiatry and society are interrelated and the biopsychosocial model continues to dominate the clinical psychiatric practice. Some doubts have been expressed in recent years about the value and the wide acceptance of the biopsychosocial model. Ghaemi (2009)1 considers it to be anti-humanistic and advocates the use of less eclectic, less generic, and less vague alternatives. The fundamental changes that have been witnessed in our times across the spectrum of biology, psychology and sociology have made necessary that a conceptual clarity should prevail...